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“When you ask for feedback, you create generosity in the system and it
explodes exponentially. It’s much more powerful to ask than to just get it
unsolicited.”

—Dean Carter, vice president of human resources at Patagonia Inc. David Shadovitz Editor

e-mail: dshadovitz@lrp.com

Every corner of the organization is being disrupted by technology— and, as a recent study titled Global Leadership Forecast 2018: 25 Research Insights to Fuel Your People Strategy reminds us, HR is no exception. The research, jointly
produced by DDI, The Conference

Board and EY, includes a number
of troubling findings, but few are as
disturbing as the report’s contention
that HR lags behind other parts of the
organization when it comes to digital
competence.

According to the study of 25,812
business leaders and 2,547 HR

Are You Digitally Mature?

professionals at 2,488 organizations
worldwide, the above finding
shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to
HR leaders. About 70 percent of the
HR respondents recognized there
was an increased need to “up their
game” as far as HR technology and
analytics are concerned. Further, 56
percent of them report they are under
increased pressure to demonstrate the
financial impact of what they do, which
undeniably requires a better grasp of
analytics.

As the researchers appropriatelypoint out, there’s a big differencebetween acknowledging a problemexists and taking steps to addressit. Asked how prepared they wereto tackle different aspects of today’sVUCA (volatile, uncertain, complexand ambiguous) work environment, theHR respondents sadly lagged behindtheir peers in all seven categories. Butit was particularly disturbing to seehow pronounced the gap was when itcame to HR’s ability to function in ahighly digital environment— 16 percentfor HR leaders, compared to 37 percentfor all leaders. (The HR leaders alsotrailed their peers by a 40-percentmargin when it came to using data todrive their decision making.)

That’s not to say HR leaders aren’t
deepening their knowledge in these
areas. As the sessions at last October’s
HR Tech Conference confirmed, they
most certainly are. But the point the
researchers are making—and maybe
appropriately so—is that HR simply
isn’t keeping up with the pace of
change that’s occurring today.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence, then,
that Eva Sage-Gavin’s inaugural HR
Leadership column also tackles the
subject of digital disruption. (
Sage-Gavin is a former chief HR officer with
more than three decades of experience
at Fortune 500 companies. A senior
managing director at Accenture, she
recently took over the column from
Susan Meisinger, who did an amazing
job during the past seven years.)

Reflecting on what lies ahead foremployers and the HR profession,Sage-Gavin suggests it’s nothing shortof a “tidal wave of disruption as themarketplace deals with unparalleledvelocity and the effect of nimbler, moredigitally savvy companies that areunencumbered by legacy processesand technology quickly dominatingestablished players.”She points out that the top skillscompanies are in pursuit of today willchange drastically by as soon as 2020,thanks to automation.

“As leaders, we’ll need to tap intoinnovations emerging from HR techstart-ups,” Sage-Gavin writes. “Thiscould mean leveraging AI-basedalgorithms to predict the skills we’llneed and screen for them (even skillslike learning agility), or smart digital‘coaches’ to give our employees real-time, data-based feedback to help themlearn and grow. We’ll also need toleverage talent sources ‘on demand,’assembling teams fluidly based onfluctuating needs.”If you haven’t already, I suggestyou check out Sage-Gavin’s fullcolumn online. She does a superbjob capturing the many and variedways technology can help transformtoday’s HR department. But evenmore importantly, I believe HR leaderswould be well-served were they to askthemselves the question, “Where do Iand my HR department stand on thedigital-maturity spectrum?”I’m sure some HR leaders will bepleased with how far they and theirdepartments have come. But forthose who continue to lag—whichI’m guessing might be most—there’sno better time to do something aboutit than the present, since the pace ofchange isn’t likely to let up anytimesoon.